The Things That Matter
by greyslostwho
Summary: Booth and Brennan are snowed in at a motel and a discussion ensues about religion, family and love... Yeah, that summary sucked. BB, mostly fluff. Anyway, please read and review!
1. Part 1

**THE THINGS THAT MATTER**

**Booth and Brennan get snowed in at a motel, and talk about their latest case leads to a discussion about religion, family and love. Twoshot. BB, of course!**

**Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Bones. Happy now?**

"Turn off, Booth, there's too much of it." Brennan said shakily, shivering from the front seat of the car. They were trying to get home after an arrest they had made in Colorado when the snowstorm had hit. Now the temperature was dropping quickly in the SUV and the snow on the road was getting deeper and deeper.

"We're nearly on the highway, Bones. It'll be clear up there."

She rolled her eyes. "I am not going to be the one shovelling snow to get us out of the car, Booth. Just turn into the motel."

"The highway-"

"Is nearly twenty minutes away." Brennan said, and looked at him with distaste. "Seriously, Booth, we arrested the killer. The case is closed. What does one night in a motel matter?"

He sighed. "All right." He said, and turned into the cheap looking motel with the flashing signs. Brennan smiled, satisfied, and pulled her coat tighter around her and grabbed her bag, ready to make a dash for the door. Booth stopped the engine and grabbed his bag.

"Ready?" he asked. Brennan smiled. They opened their car doors simultaneously and ran for it to the door of the motel. Booth zapped the car lock as he ran, half wading through the shin deep snow, towards the door of the motel, red paint peeling and a dent in the bottom. Brennan looked at it with distaste, but Booth bit down any comments he could have made and opened the door.

A highly irritating bell announced their arrival, and a girl sat on the desk chewing on gum looked up boredly.

"Good evening and welcome to the Sunshine Motel. How may I help you?"

"We'd like to book two rooms for the night, please." Booth said, looking around him warily.

"Two rooms?" the girl raised her eyebrows, looking between Booth and Brennan. "Did you have a fight or something?"

Booth looked at her strangely and then at the same moment both of them understood. Brennan flushed.

"Oh, we're not… Booth and I aren't…"

Booth gave a deep sigh. "We're not together… we're just partners." He finished.

The girl nodded with a look of disbelief. Then she continued typing on her computer which looked like it had been brought out of the Stone Age.

"Sorry, we only have one room left." She said, smiling as if she were pleased at that.

Brennan looked at Booth. Booth looked at Brennan, raising his eyebrows. "This place is that popular?" he asked, and the girl just gave him a distasteful look. "Do you want it or not?" she said, champing on her gum in the most annoying way. Booth looked wistfully out of the window, towards the SUV.

"We'll take it." Brennan said firmly, and took the key.

"Down the hall, third on the left." The girl said, and went back to her computer as they walked down the corridor with their bags. Brennan fumbled with the keys in the lock and then opened the door.

Thankfully, the room was clean. It had one large double bed in the middle of the room, a fraying couch, a little cupboard and an adjoining toilet and shower room. There was a big window but the snow had already obscured the view outside. Booth looked at the bed, dismayed. He didn't have very much faith in his self control if he was forced to share a bed with Bones.

"You all right, Booth?" she asked, from where she had sunk into the pillows of the bed.

"Yeah." He said vaguely. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Do you want to shower first?" she asked. He was still thinking hard.

"What? Sorry." He snapped out of it.

"Do you want to shower first?"

"No. You can." He said, and put his bag down on the other side of the bed.

"Right." She said, and poked her head round the bathroom door. "They've got towels. See you in a minute."

"See you." He lay back on the bed, half closing his eyes. For a few minutes he was still, listening to the sound of the shower next door and then a slight tune that he figured was Brennan singing. He smiled unwittingly. Then his cell phone went off.

"Booth."

"Daddy, it's me."

"Hey, bub. Are you ok?"

"Yep. When are you coming?"  
_Shit. _"Can I speak to Mommy for a moment, Parker?"

"Sure."

He heard his son pass the phone to Rebecca. "Seeley."

"Rebecca. Look, I'm so sorry. I'm in Colorado. We made an arrest and then it started to snow. We're stuck in a motel."

He heard a dramatic sigh. "Parker's going to be so disappointed."

"I know. I'm sorry, Rebecca."

She sighed again. "I'll pass you back over."

"Can't you come, Daddy?" came his son's voice. Booth sighed. He hated this.

"I'm so sorry, bub. But here's the deal – I'll come and get you next weekend and we'll go to the funfair. OK?"

"Can Dr Bones come too?"

Booth smiled. "I don't know. I'll ask her. She's here at the moment; she's just in the shower. I'll ask her in a bit, ok?"

"Where are you, Daddy?"

"I'm in a place called Colorado, bub. There's snow everywhere and so I can't drive home."

"Did you and Dr Bones make a snowman?"

Booth chuckled. "No. It's too cold for that. We don't have our hats and scarves with us."

"Oh." Parker said. "Well, I've got to go now, Daddy. Night night."

"Bye bye, bub."

He listened to the dialling tone for a few seconds before he put the phone down, sighing.

"Sorry, Booth." He heard a voice and looked up. Brennan was standing in the doorway, dressed back in her jeans and sweater, wet hair hanging around her face, a sad look in her eyes. He was bowled over by the way she still managed to look sophisticatedly beautiful with soaking hair and no make up.

"Don't worry." He said, and slid the phone back into his bag.

"No." Brennan said, "You hate having to miss weekends with Parker. I'm sorry, Booth. I didn't realise. We didn't have to get dinner at the diner."

He smiled at her. "No, Bones. It was fine. I liked getting dinner with you."

She looked at him for a moment, and then walked into the room a bit further, rummaging in her bag for something.

"I'll…I'll just get in the shower then." Booth said, almost awkwardly, and she grunted yes whilst searching frantically for her hairbrush.

He walked away. When he turned his back, she followed him, almost subconsciously, with her eyes. Then the bathroom door shut and she ran the brush through her hair, thinking hard. The arrest that Booth had just made had been for a man who had killed his two stepdaughters and hidden them in his basement for two years, claiming that they had gone overboard in a sailing accident. She had found evidence on the bodies that the girls had been tortured and slowly starved to death over weeks. She had felt sick looking at the man who had done it, seeing the glint in his eye as he gave his final confession. Even Booth had gone pale. And she had cried quietly in the ladies' bathroom at the Colorado police station, something she wouldn't usually have done. But seeing the look on the mother's face when she had finally realised what the man she thought she loved had done to her only children; that was something even usually cold and distant Brennan could hardly deal with. She sighed, thinking about it again, and let a tear roll down her cheek.

"Bones?" Booth said, stepping into the room, his hair tousled and wet. "Are you ok?"

She looked up at him and nodded fiercely. "Sure." She said. "Just thinking about the case."

She'd surprised herself there. At what point had she and Booth gotten to the level where she would tell him what was upsetting her?

"It was terrible." He said simply, and then forced a smile, sitting down on the other side of the bed to her and looking at her, half dry hair messy and loose around her shoulders, eyes wide and skin white. To him she had never been so beautiful. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"You gave them back to their mother, Bones. You did everything you do."

It was such a simple comment, and she knew logically she could never give those two girls back to their mother, but it seemed to comfort her somehow. She smiled at him lightly and then realised that the white shirt he was wearing left little to the imagination when it came to muscle definition. His eyes followed hers as she looked him up and down, and then she flushed bright red, and brought her eyes quickly back to his face.

Too quickly. Their eyes locked and held together, both of them unable to move in the intensity of the moment. Booth's mouth dropped open a tiny bit, and Brennan's lips parted slightly, mirroring the action. Their eyes seemed connected in some deep, almost terrifying way, and neither of them could look away.

Brennan's phone rang. Spell broken.

She leant into her bag and pulled out her ringing cell phone.

"Brennan."

"Sweetie, it's Angela. Just got a call from the FBI saying you guys won't be coming back until tomorrow. What's going on?"

But before Brennan even had a chance to answer, Angela spoke again.

"Is this something you and Booth made up so you can rendezvous somewhere in the mountains? Because if it is, sweetie, I totally agree with it. But I want to be told all the juicy-"

Mortified that Booth might have heard any of that, Brennan got up quickly and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

"Angela, it's snowing and we can't drive in this weather. We're staying at a motel until we can get down the highway."

Angela squealed. "Are you sharing a room?"

Brennan rolled her eyes to herself and squinted at how she looked in the bathroom mirror.

"Yes."

The glare of the white light made her look pale and almost gaunt.

"Are you sharing a bed?"

Her hair was a mess and she looked really tired.

"Uh huh." She said absent-mindedly, combing her fingers through her matted hair.

"You what?" Angela whispered, and Brennan suddenly realised what she was doing. Temperance Brennan did not stare into mirrors wishing she looked better for a man who her relationship with was entirely platonic.

"There's only one bed. Look, Angela, please don't make something out of this that there isn't. I've had a bad day."

"Did you arrest someone for the Jackson case?"

"The step father." Brennan said, and a lump rose in her throat as she spoke about it. "Look, Ange, I'm gonna go to bed now. Hopefully we'll be back sometime tomorrow."

"Go snuggle up to your FBI hunk and feel better, sweetie."

Brennan smiled to herself at Angela's persistent attempt at match making, and then said goodbye to her friend. She took one last, disappointed look in the mirror and then walked back into the bedroom. Booth was laying the cushions out from the couch to make himself a bed on the floor.

"You don't have to do that." Brennan said.

"I'm not gonna let you sleep on the floor, Bones, don't even try it."

"You can…I can… if you want… we…" she trailed off, not able to put it into words. He straightened up and looked at her, smiling slightly.

"You sure?" he said, reading from her face what she was saying. She nodded slightly, and then blushed again. This blushing was getting very very annoying. She smiled slightly and then bent down to help him pick up the cushions.


	2. Part 2

**THE THINGS THAT MATTER**

**Booth and Brennan get snowed in at a motel, and talk about their latest case leads to a discussion about religion, family and love. Twoshot. BB, of course!**

**Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Bones. Happy now?**

"Who was on the phone?"

"Angela. Wanted to know where we were."

Booth grinned. He could guess what else Angela had been asking Brennan. He grinned slightly to himself.

"Bones, are you free next weekend?"

Her palms clammed up immediately. She clenched her fists. "Sure. Why?"

_Was he asking her out? __**Jesus, Brennan. **__Stop thinking like that. He's just your partner. You wouldn't want him to ask you out anyway. _

"Do you want to come to the funfair on Sunday with me and Parker?"  
She sighed, relieved. Not a date. But somehow the knot in her stomach that she pretended wasn't there tightened.

"Sure. Sounds like fun." She said. She didn't like children as a rule, but Parker was different. He was like a miniature, blonde, Booth. He called her Dr Bones, made her laugh so much she cried with some of his cute little jokes, and he had _that _smile. Definitely inherited from his father.

"Great." Booth said, slightly overenthusiastically. Both of them smiled. Again, eyes locked, stomachs churned and heat rose between them. She had to swallow the overwhelming urge to grab his face in her hands and kiss him. She watched his eyes darken as he stared into hers.

There was a knocking on the door. Booth tore his eyes away and moved to open it. Brennan sat down on her side of the bed and stared down at the white pillow.

_Oh, God. _She thought. _I think Booth and I just had a Moment. But you shouldn't have Moments with your partner. I shouldn't be having Moments with Booth at all. Booth should be having Moments with other people. And the thought of Booth having Moments with other people should certainly not make me angry. Now I'm even confusing myself. I'm not thinking rationally. I'm not thinking straight. Oh God…_

He walked over and sat down on his side of the bed. "That was housekeeping." He said. "The heating broke down. It's gonna get freezing cold in here within the next ten minutes or so.

"Shit." Brennan said. She slid her feet under the bed covers. "We should go to bed." She said. He nodded agreement.

"I… I don't have any pyjamas…" she said, slightly lamely. It was Booth's turn to blush. He looked across at her, and then sighed.

"Neither do I." he said.

"Well we can't sleep in these." Brennan said, "They'll get creased." And without another word she pulled off her trousers and her blouse until she was left wearing just her panties and a strap top. Then she slid under the covers without looking at him. Following suit, and trying not to think about lying next to a half dressed Brennan all night, he took off his shirt and trousers and was left in his boxers. He switched off the light from the switch on the wall and slipped into bed next to his partner.

They lay in silence for a few minutes, both of them gathering their thoughts. Brennan's foot was lightly touching Booth's leg, and even in the dim half light when he could hardly see her, his heart was still racing at the thought of her this close.

She propped herself up on one elbow and sat there looking at him.

"Booth, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How can you believe in your God when people do things like that to those Jackson girls?"

He gulped. "Wow, deep and personal question there, Bones."

"Sorry." She whispered.

He smiled a little and rolled over to face her. "Because I believe that those girls are with God now. They're in heaven and it's better there than anywhere on earth. And they're happy."

"How can two little girls ever be happy without their mother?" she said. Her voice caught on the last word and Booth knew she was thinking about her own mother, and missing her. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She shivered with the contact.

"Because they're with God now." Booth said simply and for the first time in her life Brennan wished she could believe in something with as much absolute faith as Booth believed in his God.

But she did.

She believed in him.

He sighed. "I couldn't look into Sally Jackson's eyes when I told her." He said. "I should have been able to."

She felt his hand slacken on her arm and she reached up and covered it with her own.

"I couldn't look at their pictures when I was working with the bones." She said; her own confession of weakness. He gripped her hand in his and she felt her breath grow short as their fingers laced together. She didn't know what was going on, what she was doing. But she knew it felt better than anything ever before.

"What will she do now?" Brennan asked in a tiny voice. Booth tightened his grip slightly.

"I don't know." He muttered. "I just don't know."

She shuddered, a mixture of the cold air and of the thought of the emptiness of Sally Jackson's life now. He felt the goosebumps rising on his own skin from the cold. Silently he wrapped his free arm around her and drew her closer to him. She was stiff for a second until he whispered: "It's cold, Bones. I need to keep you warm." _I want to keep you warm._

She smiled into his shoulder. "Don't go all alpha male on me."

"It's science, isn't it? Body heat or something like that?" he said, trying to disguise the way he was smelling her hair. Tropical shampoo.

The words _body _and _heat _reminded her of her position. Freezing cold in a double bed, under a duvet with Booth's arms wrapped around her and her face buried in his neck. Some very distant part of her was screaming about crossing a line, but she didn't move. She was quite comfortable where she was.

"She's got nothing left." Brennan whispered, and Booth was shocked at her openness. He didn't know what had happened to the Bones who took everything literally and rationally.

"She'll find something to live for, Bones." Booth said, "These people always do."

"They were her entire world, Booth. She didn't have a job, or a pet, or anything. They were her everything." She took a deep breath. Tonight was a night to be open, to be emotional, to be honest. "That scares me a little bit. Being that dependent on _people._"

He didn't know what to say. She was never like this. He began to wonder how much the Jackson case had affected her. How close to falling she was getting. It didn't matter though, because whilst she was there in his arms he could catch her.

"Some people are people people, Bones. Some people need other people for their lives to be happy, and some people don't."

"You're a people person." She stated simply. "If anything happened to Parker, you'd never be the same again. He's what makes you happy."

_And you. _Booth thought, but said nothing.

"Some people need love to survive."

"There's no such thing as love, not really." She said, and it was like she was back on Bones autopilot.

"You really think that?" he said, and she noticed an almost sad tone in his voice.

"Yes." She turned her head so it rested a few inches away from his on the pillow, staring at the ceiling, "There's passion, there's good sex, there's lust, there's desire, but there's not really anything more…" she trailed, realising she didn't even half believe in that anymore.

"So you've never been in love?" Booth asked her.

_I am now. _Said a little voice that sounded worryingly like Angela in her mind. She pushed it away. "No. I've been attracted to people, yes, but…"

"So you've never had stronger feelings than attraction?"

"I don't believe in stronger feelings. The sensation of being in love is merely a mixture of endorphins and-"

He cut her off. "No, Bones, it's more than that. More than chemicals. It's feeling happy just when you see them. It's wanting to make them smile more than anything. It's longing to see them when you're not with them. It's shivering and burning up all at once with one touch. It's thinking they're beautiful no matter what they look like. It's…"

He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he wondered if he'd gone too far.

"Wow." She whispered, and relaxed again. He let his face fall into her silky hair, breathing her in. Her shoulders were shaking slightly, trembling.

"Booth…" she murmured, and let out a breath on his neck which sent a shiver down his spine. Very slowly and carefully as if she was a fragile china doll he lifted one hand and cupped her face with it, pulling her head up to his level so he could look into the pools of darkness that were her eyes. He could have drawn his hand away, never done it, and gone on pretending to feel nothing, staying his side of the line. She could have pulled back, telling him he was going too far, too fast, and never had to feel this terrifying, exhilarating feeling again. But she leant in and touched her lips to his, gently.

His eyes closed almost instantly, his heart racing, his head pounding. Drawing her even tighter to him in his arms he kissed her back with reckless abandon. Gradually but surely her mouth opened and she let the tip of her tongue touch his, just a tiny moment of contact that sent both of their desires into a whole new dimension. She had her arms around his neck, kissing him hard, kissing him like she'd never kissed anyone before. When they drew back a little, panting, Booth was the first to speak.

"What the hell was that, Bones?" he asked.

She shrugged, lacing her fingers through his. "That was the end of my theory about love." She said simply, and he felt the wide smile tracing over his lips. He kissed her on the forehead and then they pressed their faces together.

"I love you too." He murmured. She felt a tear leak out of one of her eyes and fall onto the pillow, but she didn't move to wipe it away.

He held her tightly to him, almost protectively, and for the first time she wasn't thinking about alpha male tendencies and testosterone and things, but about how it felt, her body pressed into Booth's bare chest, her bare legs entangled with his.

From where she laid, her head in his shoulder, she travelled kisses up, his neck, his chin, his jaw line and then onto his lips again, kissing with a hunger and an emotion that was totally alien to her.

His hands tangled in her hair and she slid her hands down his body, leaving him breathless. His hands slid under her shirt and she stopped, frozen.

"Bones?" he whispered, dreading her running away.

"I'm scared." She said in a tiny voice.

He drew her closer, holding her head to his chest.

"Scared of losing you." She whispered, "Scared of feeling like I've never felt before."

He kissed her mouth fiercely, trying to tell her without words that he'd never leave her. "I'm scared too." He said. "And I've never felt quite like this. But I want this, and you want this too. Don't you?"

She hesitated and for a moment he thought his minutes of joy were over. Then she kissed him softly, a kiss so full of everything she was feeling that he was almost overwhelmed by it.

"I love you." She said, and then she almost laughed. "And I never thought I'd say that."

"I love you too." He said, and held her tightly. She kissed him, with more desire and passion, and then her hands travelled to the waist band of his boxers.

He caught her hands. "Are you sure, Bones?" he whispered, "I don't want you running away in the morning."

She kissed him lightly, playfully. "I'm sure." She said, and lost herself in him completely, each kiss opening her up to love a little more, each touch breaking down the walls around her heart.

**Yay those two are so meant to be together!!!! Anyways, please review and I will bake you muffins!!!!!**

**xxx**


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